Last year, a terrorist drove through a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, and killed Heather Heyer. At the time of Heyer’s death, Republican lawmakers in six states had proposed legislation that could protect drivers who run over protesters with their cars. Last month, North Carolina joined their ranks, passing House Bill 330. The legislation specifically exempts drivers from responsibility for protesters’ deaths if the driver runs over a protester while “exercising due care.”
Do Republicans Want to Legalize Killing Protesters?
Republican proponents of legislation that would shield drivers from liability for running over protests insist that the legislation is about safety. “As we’ve seen, time and time again, as folks run out in the middle of the streets and the interstates in Charlotte and attempt to block traffic,” Justin Burr, who introduced the legislation in North Carolina, said.
Yet protesters blocking roads have not injured or killed drivers. This protest strategy also has a long and storied history within the larger civil rights movement. Martin Luther King, Jr. led several protests that blocked bridges and road. Protesters crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, were brutally beaten by police. A federal judge had told protesters the march was illegal, and media outlets referred to violence “on both sides,” despite video of police attacking nonviolent protesters.
A key civil rights strategy involved shutting down roads. Yet then, as today, far-right reactionaries dubbed protesters criminals and advocated for violence against them. This is nothing new. What is new is enacting legislation that would make it legal for civilians to attack, or even potentially kill, protesters.
In the 20th century, it was extra-judicial lynchings, beatings by police, brutality with firehoses. Today, in an era where many would have us believe that racism no longer exists, Republicans want to legalize running over protesters.
Turning the Law on its Head to Stop Abortion Clinic Protests
Republicans have made it clear that these laws are really about making it legal to kill black people and their supporters—specifically, Black Lives Matter protesters who threaten the status quo. So appeals to the humanity of protesters won’t change minds. These laws are designed to put protesters in danger because Republicans think that people who protest racist policies in a way that inconveniences others don’t deserve to live.
But what if we turned the law on its head? Black Lives Matter protesters aren’t the only people who shut down roads. Abortion clinic protesters have been blocking sidewalks, clinic entrances, and roads for decades. An abortion clinic in North Carolina was recently met with 600 protesters calling abortion a “man’s issue.” These protesters endanger women’s health, and have even stalked them at work or contacted their families.
So should choice supporters start discussing their plans to drive through abortion clinic protests? If it’s legal to run over a person of color protesting police brutality, certainly it makes sense that women seeking abortion care shouldn’t be prevented from driving to the parking lot at their local abortion clinic.
Of course, it’s wrong to run over anyone for any reason. Choice advocates who ran through crowds of protesters would be committing a heinous and indefensible act. When Republican lawmakers openly and gleefully discuss plans to run over Black Lives Matter protesters, however, perhaps the only way to stop it is to discuss how these plans could be turned against their side.